Imagine this. It’s a Friday night, and a great action film you have waited months to see is about to hit the big screen, but you can’t get too excited because you know the one cinema in town will probably be sold out, too crowded, and you have to wait in long lines not only to buy your first round of popcorn and a soda, but you also have to miss part of your movie waiting back in that line if you decide you want refills. You tell yourself, “Why go through all that hassle and pay that much money when I can enjoy a DVD on my Blu-ray with all the popcorn and candy I can eat and a refrigerator full of soft drinks? I can just wait until the movie comes out on DVD.”
Unfortunately, with one movie theater in San Angelo, many people make this choice because they don’t want to pay $7 to $10 for a movie they can’t fully enjoy for these reasons.
Above: Construction is underway at Icon Cinema in north San Angelo. (LIVE! Photo\Brandy Ramirez)
Now, imagine another scenario. It’s a Friday night, and you can’t wait to see that great action film you’ve waited to see for months. The movie got rave reviews, and all you have to do is go online to www.iconcinemas.com, choose the seats you want to sit in—in fact, you want to sit in the bottom row filled with three-pillow top recliner chairs that completely lean back with footrests, so you can kick your feet up after a hard day at work, school or taking care of kids. You also don’t have to rush because the movie will sell out. You know exactly where you’re sitting, and no one can take your seat regardless of the time you show up.
Not to mention, when you walk in to the new Icon Cinema theater located at 2020 N. Bryant Blvd. in San Angelo, an employee greets you with a smile, and for a moment you’re overwhelmed because it’s been a long time since anyone greeted you in such a way and offered to guide you in the right direction. You’re also overwhelmed by the arcade to the right, an ice cream bar with 16 different flavors to the left, and the concession stands next to that bar; and all you have to do is get in one of the eight lines available, grab a candy that’s not locked up, hand it to the cashier, double check your seats on a display monitor in front of you while an employee grabs the size of drink and popcorn you want and quickly checks you out.
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You then make your way to one of the super-sized popcorn warmers filled with hot fresh popcorn; and better yet, you get to decide how much butter you want, or don’t want, and once you have your fill, you can make your way to the north wall filled with tons of different soft drinks and ICEE flavors to choose from. Better yet, you’ll need an extra hand to grab some nachos from the nacho bar across from the drink station and top them with chili and jalapeños.
Once you have everything in hand, you make your way to the Action Room because that's the best place for action films, but you decide to stop and marvel at the digital command center filled with racks of servers working and running. You never got to see behind the scenes of a movie theater before, so you can’t help it. Additionally, once you walk into the enormous Action Room, which is the second largest in the theater, you notice more than 200 reclining chairs filled with people who look relaxed and eager to watch the movie. As you casually walk to your seat, you realize you didn’t have to scoot or watch to make sure not to knock into another patron even though their seats are reclined. As you relax and kick up your feet, you then get down to watching that action film, and right when things start to get good, you feel your seat moving and the floor shaking as the bombs explode on the screen. All of a sudden, you’re so immersed in the film that you forget where you are for the moment. Everything feels so real, and halfway through the movie, you’re parched and need a refill on that drink, so you head out to the concession area, walk back to that popcorn warmer, soft drink area and nacho bar and refill without having to stand back in line.
Now the people who have lived in San Angelo all their lives and dealt with one movie theater for so long might be saying at this point, “That sounds amazing, but yeah right! San Angelo doesn’t have anything like that. We have to drive to San Antonio for something that amazing.”
Well, that’s not true any longer. As of Nov. 6, 2015, people in San Angelo and the surrounding communities will finally get to enjoy a state-of-the art cinema that will literally “rock” and “recline” their world.
The Actual Story
With three or four more weeks left to go in the building process, the new soon-to-be Icon Cinema, a New Mexico based top-rated movie theater, is right on track to wowing the San Angelo community with a state-of-the-art VIP movie theater that now has Roswell and Albuquerque buzzing with the wonder of it all.
“We’re opening up a 10 screen first-run movie theater with all VIP seating,” said owner Stetson Snell. “VIP seating means all the seats are going to be recliner-like seating. All of the seats on the bottom rows are going to completely lean back with footrests, and all of the rest are going to be big three-pillow top recliner chairs; they just won’t have the foot rest to kick up. It’s also reserved seating. You’ll know exactly what seat you’re going to sit in before you walk into the auditorium, and you get to pick that seat.”
Above: Stetson Snell's team has the popcorn warmers with dehydration units underneath them to keep the popcorn hot, fresh and full for continual refills. (LIVE! Photo\Brandy Ramirez)
To reserve their seats, patrons can either purchase tickets online in advance, or at the cinema, but it doesn’t work the usual way.
“It’s all one-stop shop, so you don’t have to get in multiple lines to get your tickets and get in another one for snacks,” Snell explained. “You’ll get it all done at one time so everything runs efficiently and fast.”
As explained in the hypothetical scenario above, the cinema will have eight lines, and each line will contain candy racks on the counter since Snell doesn’t believe in locking candy up.
He said, “We leave it right here, and you select your candy and show it to the cashier. [He or she] will ring you up, and you’ll order your ticket and there will be monitor in each line for people to see a diagram of the auditorium. It will show the screen and all the seats there. It will show what’s been sold and what’s still available. You can know specifically where you want to sit, so there’s no point in rushing in there super early to get the best seat because you already know you have it.”
While in the same line, people can order all their snacks and everything includes unlimited refills. Patrons can then take their empty popcorn bag or bucket and go to the super-sized popcorn warmers that contain freshly popped popcorn. The dehydration units under the warmers keep the popcorn super hot and fresh the whole time, and all popcorn lovers have to do is pull out the handle, fill their bucket and decide on butter.
“You can layer it and make it just how you like it,” Snell continued; and the best part, people don’t have to ask for refills. They simply can go get them.
“That way you’re not wasting part of your movie standing in another line waiting to get refills,” Snell noted.
Additionally, a wide variety of soda and ICEE flavors are indeed part of the package, and so is the nacho bar. People can also get their hot dog toppings in that area, and if they like a little spice to their popcorn like West Texans do, Snell prepared for that and will have Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce available for those patrons who like things hot.
For people who may not want to actually see a movie, or who prefer something cold, especially on those hot days, Icon Cinema will have a full ice cream bar that serves Dip and Dots along with those 16 flavors of hard scooped ice cream. Up to 40 people can sit in that bar area and hang out, or they can enjoy the arcade.
“Bring the kids, eat some ice cream, and play games for a little while,” Snell invited.
The Ultimate Movie Experience
At Icon Cinema, as stated, there will be 10 screens total, and San Angelo’s largest screen is Icon’s version of IMAX.
“We call it the Iconic Screen,” Snell stated. “It’s a wall-to-wall 62-foot screen that has the latest in projection technology with the silver screen, so we’ll be able to show 3D films as well.”
Above: A variety of soda and ICEE flavors will line this counter when construction completes at Icon Cinema. (LIVE! Photo\Brandy Ramirez)
The room that will hold this screen is 66 feet wide and the radius screen will curve in for effect. The room will also hold 235 seats. Although this is less than what most theaters have, Snell explained that was the goal: to offer comfort over quantity.
The next largest room, Action House, as described previously, will have almost the same number of seats and every single one in that auditorium has a subwoofer built in.
“So if you’re watching an action move and there’s a bomb exploding or cars racing, your seat’s going to react to what’s going on in the movie,” Snell explained. In addition to the seats, subwoofers will also be built into the floor, and all auditoriums have a Mercer sound system with the 3D sound and speakers in the ceiling for the ultimate effect.
“I’m a sound guy,” Snell proclaimed.
All of the other theaters will have 170 seats, but one thing Snell said people can be sure of, people will be more than comfortable with the recliner seats. In fact, Icon Cinema, is renowned for its seating.
“Every location that we go into, we really put in great seats. In Roswell, it was the best seats that were in that town and in Albuquerque. We were the first VIP theater in the whole state of New Mexico,” Snell claimed.
With the new trend of recliner chairs taking shape, that’s what delayed the start of construction on the cinema. He said he was originally going to go with just a really nice traditional leather movie chair, which would have been really nice, but his team thought it a better idea to go with the carmine red big full recliner because the wanted everyone to have the best possible experience.
“You can be fully reclined back and you don’t have to worry about anyone scooting in front of you. You don’t have to shimmy, and you can walk by comfortably,” he stated.
The Pricing and Customer Service
To enjoy all that Icon Cinema has to offer, patrons will pay the same as they do at the current local theater, but Snell said they’ll get more for their money. Patrons get all they can eat concessions for the price of a ticket along with better sound, seating and quality in customer service, services the people in Roswell and Albuquerque continually rave about.
“They love it because it’s family friendly, and it’s family priced,” Snell noted. “We really want you to come out; it doesn’t have to be a special occasion, and it doesn’t have to break the bank.”
Above: Crews work hard to install state-of-the-art sound systems in each theater at Icon Cinema.(LIVE! Photo\Brandy Ramirez)
He also added that people, from the time they walk in and get greeted by his staff to the time they leave, will be taken care of and will feel like they are VIP during their time at Icon Cinema.
“It’s customer service to the max, which I see as a lost art these days,” Snell stated. “Too often, in the cinema business, customer service is getting lost because you might be the only game in town.”
The Location Reasoning
Snell moved his family here from New Mexico four months ago. He’s from Clovis originally, and with the location in Roswell and in Albuquerque, the family wanted to expand. Snell said he found out about San Angelo from a San Angelo resident.
“We were in our Roswell location, and a lady from San Angelo came in with her family who was from Roswell, and they went into the theater,” Snell recalled. “She was just blown away and said, ‘You guys just have to build one of these in San Angelo. There’s just one theater there, and there’s a large population. The theater is located in the center of town, and whenever you go there, it’s sold out.'”
Above: Crews had to put in beams on the roof of this theater to dock the Mercer sound system. (LIVE! Photo\Brandy Ramirez)
Therefore, Snell and his team came to San Angelo and after looking into things, they said, “This really is a great market for an Icon Cinema.”
One of the complaints, however, for San Angeloans who live on the north side is that all big businesses build on the south side of town. There’s a stigma about the area, but Snell thought otherwise and said the area has great potential.
“There’s a large population here that’s not being serviced by a movie theater,” Snell stated. “They just built a new Walmart and Walgreens, and it seems there’s a lot being built out this way, so that’s why we wanted to put something that would service, not only this side of town, but the whole town.”
Snell added that once Icon’s doors open, everyone’s property value will increase. In addition, he will be hiring 60 people to run the cinema, and that will include high school students and/or people getting jobs for the first time along with his management team. Snell will be holding a job fair at the theater from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 16, 17 and 18.
Overall, Snell said he hopes this cinema sees success because he has long-term goals for his business in the state. “I really love Texas, so I hope it’s not the last.”
For more information about Icon Cinema, visit www.iconcinemas.com, or visit the company’s Facebook page by clicking here.
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